Roping the Rancher (Harlequin American Romance)

by Benson, Julie

  “That’s not fair. You didn’t start the fight,” Ryan said.

  “I’ll talk to Chief Parsons. You did nothing wrong.” Stacy shook her head. “I knew I should’ve contacted my attorney that night. If I had this wouldn’t have happened.”

  “It’s no big deal.” He wanted to forget the night ever happened, and not only because of the fight. “As far as I’m concerned the matter’s over.”

  “I’ll reimburse you for the fine and whatever the damages were.”

  “It’s already taken care of.” He didn’t need her seeing to his responsibilities. He’d gotten into the fight. He’d man up and take the consequences.

  “That’s the least I can do since you were defending me.”

  “There’s no need.”

  “I don’t want what happened taking money away from Healing Horses or from other necessities. It’s not easy surviving on one income.”

  He winced. What did she think? That he was a charity case? “I do all right.”

  “I didn’t say you weren’t. At least let me pay half.”

  “No.”

  “Why won’t you let me help you?”

  Her words stopped him cold, her offer both thrilling and ticking him off. Anger kicked in both at her for wanting to help and at him for being pleased that she had. “I don’t need the help.”

  “Is Healing Horses having money problems?” Reed’s voice startled Colt. He pulled his gaze away from Stacy.

  Five sets of eyes trained on him and Stacy.

  He’d forgotten everyone else. For a few minutes there had been no one around but Stacy. The woman made him lose all common sense. She lit a fire in him like no other woman. Not even his wife. No woman ever made him so out-and-out frustrated, or made him want her so much.

  After a deep breath and counting to ten, he said, “Healing Horses is doing fine. The spring classes are full. We just got another grant. If I get real lucky at an auction I should be able to pick up a few more horses.”

  “I’m going to one this weekend,” Avery said. “We received an anonymous donation to purchase horses to keep them from going to meat packers.”

  “What?” Stacy and Ryan gasped in unison.

  “Horse meat is a delicacy in some places in Europe. Meat packers will buy unwanted horses here and ship the meat overseas.”

  “How can people do that?” Ryan’s voice filled with horror. “Horses are such beautiful animals.”

  “I know. With the donation we’ll buy as many horses as we can. Then we’ll find adoptive homes for them.”

  “I never knew this kind of thing happened. How awful.” Stacy glanced at Avery. “How can I help? Can I make a donation to the shelter?”

  “I’ll always take money, or you could come with us to the auction and bid on horses yourself. If you, Colt and I all bid that would help keep the prices up and knock out a lot of the meat packers. They want to get the horses dirt cheap.”

  “I should update the website to let people know how they can help, and that the shelter will have horses available for adoption,” Reed said.

  “I’ll send out something on Facebook,” Jess added. “Ryan, you can help me with that. I’ll also do a blog on the subject for the shelter.”

  They thankfully spent the rest of the meal discussing Healing Horses, Avery’s work at the shelter and Reed’s business. All safe topics. Stacy opened up and talked about Maggie’s movie and her role. “People are calling the movie a female Bonanza for the twenty-first century. If it does well at the box office, who knows, it could lead to a series.”

  “I think Maggie’s movie will be a blockbuster. Everybody’s always talking about how great cowboys are, how they’re the backbone of the West and all that kind of stuff, but nobody ever shows how strong the women are here,” Jess said.

  Avery nodded toward her mom. “Look at Mom. She’s a perfect example of that.”

  “I’ve had a lot of help running my ranch from my kids.” Nannette, beaming from her daughter’s compliment, turned toward Stacy. “I know you’ve done both movies and series. Which do you prefer, Stacy?”

  “Movies are great, but a series means getting to stay in one place and money coming in consistently. Those things have a big appeal now that Ryan’s living with me.”

  “That’s what Maggie says. She and Griffin love doing The Next Rodeo Cowboy, but once my granddaughter is school age, they don’t want to do all that traveling.”

  “Then we’ll have to hope the movie is a huge success, and Maggie gets the chance to direct the series,” Avery said.

  “They could film it here,” Reed added. “Now that would be a boost to the local economy.”

  After dinner, Jess and Ryan took Avery’s laptop and went to the living room to work on getting the word out about the auction on social media. When Avery and Nannette started clearing the table, Stacy picked up her plate and Colt’s. Then he picked up some glasses.

  “While I appreciate your willingness to help, Colt, my kitchen’s not that big,” Avery said. “And if you help clean up, then Reed will feel like he has to help. Then we’ll be tripping over each other like puppies trying to get to their mom at feeding time.”

  “She’s right,” Reed said. “You can help me update the website.”

  Colt glanced at Stacy, trying to sense if she felt comfortable being left alone. Then he shook himself mentally. What was he worried about? This was Nannette and Avery.

  “Go,” Stacy said, as if reading his mind. How did she do that?

  As he and Reed walked through the apartment to his brother’s office, Reed asked, “Are things really okay with Healing Horses? If you need money, RJ Industries can give you another grant.”

  “I don’t need my baby brother bailing me out.”

  “Think of it as me paying you back for helping me reach adulthood. Hell, if it hadn’t been for you either Dad would’ve killed me, or I’d be in jail for killing him.”

  When his brother settled in at his desk, Colt sank into the wing chair in the corner of the room. “Damn, Reed. Getting into that fight with Carpenter scared the daylights out of me. With our history and the way Dad was—”

  “You are nothing like that bastard.”

  “You didn’t see me at Halligan’s. I’m not sure I’ve ever been that mad.”

  “He started the fight. You didn’t go out looking for one. Remember how our old man used to do that?” Anger filled Reed’s gaze, but the emotion was different now. No, it wasn’t exactly anger. More regret and resignation. “Some days I would look at him and know it was going to be a rough one. The look that he was spoiling for a fight was in his eyes. We’re not like that.”

  Certainty rang out in Reed’s voice, and Colt knew he was right. Despite his fight with Carpenter, he wasn’t like his father. That didn’t mean the feelings Stacy stirred up in him that night didn’t leave him shaking in his boots. “Thanks. I needed to hear that. How did we turn out okay when he was such a dick?”

  “I had you and the McAlisters’ house to escape to. You had Lynn.”

  Wow. The words knocked Colt harder than an angry bull. Sure, he’d loved his wife, but had part of her allure been her family? Its stability, the calm that radiated her household? Lynn’s house became his shelter amid the storm of his life. Had he used Lynn as an escape? Had that been another reason why they didn’t make it?

  What did it matter now? No use in feeling guilty when he couldn’t change anything.

  “Dinner was interesting. Stacy really gets under your skin.” Reed pulled up the shelter’s website. “I wondered what was going on between you two when I heard about what happened at Halligan’s. I’ve never seen a woman light a fire under you like Stacy did when the two of you were arguing about her paying your fine. Not even Lynn got you that riled up.”

  His brother didn’t
know the half of it. Not that Colt planned on admitting the fact.

  Play dumb.

  “There’s nothing between me and Stacy.”

  Reed laughed, and not just a little chuckle. No. A full out belly laugh. “How could you say that with a straight face?’”

  Discipline learned from years in the military.

  But he couldn’t deny it. Stacy annoyed him more than any woman he’d ever met, and yet he admired her. Her spunk, her fortitude. The courage it took her to get anywhere near a horse after one killed her father. He liked how she spoke her mind. He thought of their earlier discussion tonight. No doubt about it, a man knew what she was thinking because she held nothing in.

  Lynn had been the opposite. She never said what she thought, preferring instead to let him guess. Usually wrong. No, she held everything in and then one day she’d blast him out of the water with how mad she was. That’s what happened with their marriage. He’d sensed for a while that she was unhappy and brought up the subject a couple of times. She smiled and said nothing was wrong. He’d known better, but hadn’t wanted to push. To tell the truth, he hadn’t wanted to know how bad things were. Then one day she waltzed in, said she’d been miserable for years and left. No talking about it. No giving him a chance to change. She’d given up on him.

  He couldn’t see Stacy giving up on anything or anyone.

  “I think it’s great that you’re interested in a woman. It’s about time you came back among the living male population.”

  He stared at Reed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You’ve been a monk since Lynn left. Is that what you really want? To spend the rest of your life alone?”

  The last thing Colt needed was someone else to worry about, and that’s what happened with relationships. All he wanted was a calm, boring life, without any further entanglements. He needed a romantic relationship like a farmer needed to milk a bull. Plus he had Jess to consider. He couldn’t risk bringing someone into her life who might leave her. She’d dealt with so much in her life. She couldn’t handle any more loss and Stacy would leave.

  “I’m happy for you and Avery, but I’m already a onetime loser. That was enough for me. Only an idiot with a track record like mine would go there again.”

  “Who said anything about marriage? Go out on a date.”

  “I’m not sure I remember what to do. I only dated one girl before I started dating Lynn and that was when I was sixteen.”

  “Suffering from performance anxiety?”

  After the other night? No way. His body remembered exactly how to react to a woman and what to do with one. That was the problem.

  “Things have changed a whole helluva lot since then,” he said.

  “Just go out and have some fun. Go to dinner. A movie, whatever. Anything but taking her to a family dinner.” Reed shook his head. “What were you thinking?”

  “It wasn’t my idea. It was my daughter’s.”

  How did a guy just date and have fun? If there wasn’t any chemistry with a woman he might as well go out with his buddies instead. If there was a spark between them, then how did he keep from wanting more? No thanks. Dating sounded like a recipe for disaster.

  “I don’t know why we’re talking about this. Stacy’s only going to be around for a few weeks. Once her brother’s done with therapy and she finishes the movie she’ll hightail it back to L.A.”

  “That’s perfect. You can have a good time with both of you knowing nothing else can come of it. That’s a great way for you to get your feet wet.”

  “What about Jess? She got attached to Avery pretty quick when you two started dating. What if she does the same with Stacy? I don’t know if she could take getting close to Stacy and then having her leave.”

  “If you’re worried about Jess dealing with it, talk with her.”

  “Talk with my teenage daughter about my dating a woman? That’s just what I need.”

  “You’re thinking too much. Jess knows Stacy isn’t sticking around, right?” Colt nodded. “Then it shouldn’t be a problem. Trust me on this. What harm could having a little fun do?”

  Somehow Colt didn’t think things would be that simple.

  * * *

  “YOU DON’T HAVE to help clean up, Stacy,” Avery said once Colt and Reed left. “You’re a guest. Mom and I can handle it.”

  She didn’t want to be a guest.

  When she’d said how Travis wouldn’t let her leave the dance floor, both women understood what she’d felt. Compassion had filled their eyes, and Nannette had shown a mother’s concern. Would Andrea have cared if she knew what happened at Halligan’s? Really cared about her and how scared she’d been? Something told Stacy all Andrea would’ve been more concerned about was how to turn what happened into a publicity op.

  Her heart skipped a beat. She wanted to belong.

  “Helping will give me a chance to apologize to both of you for the way I acted the last time I was in town,” Stacy said as she followed the women into the kitchen.

  “No hard feelings.” Nannette carried plates to the sink. “Griffin was as much to blame for what happened on that show as anyone else.”

  “You’re right about that,” Avery added. “If he’d told Maggie he loved her before the finale, things would’ve been so much better.”

  “He wasn’t ready to admit that then.” Nannette turned to Stacy, a glint in her eye as if she were about to share a secret. “My children can be a little hardheaded.”

  “Mom, I’m right here.”

  “I know you are, dear.” Nannette kissed her daughter on the cheek. “I love you, but you know I’m right.”

  Love filled the small kitchen as it had at the dinner. Deep. Constant. Unfailing. Stacy looked away.

  “I wasn’t being hardheaded. I was being cautious with Reed.” Avery pointed to the stove. “Would you hand me that pot, Stacy?”

  She nodded and retrieved the item. “I’m glad things worked out for Griffin and Maggie. When I’ve seen them together on the set they seem very happy. Now that’s the only way to find love on a reality show and have it last.”

  “I was right,” Avery said, a huge grin on her face. “I never thought you were on that silly show expecting to find love.”

  “How anyone who watches that show can expect couples to stay together longer than the time it takes to boil water is beyond me,” Nannette added.

  “You’d be surprised how many people believe that’s really why I went on the show.” She explained about how she’d needed to revive her career.

  “You’ve changed since you were here before,” Avery said.

  Lately, she felt as if that was a lifetime ago. “My life’s different than it was then.” When she’d met Avery and Nannette her career had been everything. Andrea’s second husband had taken her to the cleaners, and she’d turned to retail therapy to cope. The money flew out faster than the Concord, and Andrea started having trouble paying her bills. Feeling the added financial pressure to supplement her mother’s finances to keep a roof over Ryan’s head, Stacy needed the steady income a series offered. Then Ryan had the accident and he moved in with her. Things like that changed a woman fast. “I was different then.”

  “What do you think of Colt?” Nannette asked as she wiped the kitchen counter.

  What a complicated question.

  No, it wasn’t. The answer was simple. He’s wonderful. Honest, dependable and sexier than a man had a right to be.

  “He’s a great father, and he’s helping Ryan so much. The work he does at Healing Horses has amazed me. He’s really making a difference in people’s lives.”

  “That’s not an answer to the question. I asked what you thought of him.” Nannette’s knowing gaze drilled into Stacy.

  Too bad. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.


  “He’s a good man. I was thankful he was there at Halligan’s.”

  “He got that from his mother. She was a good woman.” Nannette shook her head. “I still can’t believe we didn’t know what hell those boys went through after their mother died.”

  Avery explained how Colt and Reed’s mother died after falling down the stairs when Colt was twelve. Before her death, their mother shielded her sons from her husband’s temper and his fists as much as she could. “Reed told me Colt could let a lot of what their dad said and did slide, but Reed always argued with their father. That made things worse. Colt was the one who calmed the disagreements down or stepped in when things got really bad between Reed and his dad. Reed swears Colt kept the two of them from killing each other.”

  The strength of character it took to survive what life dumped on Colt astounded her. No wonder he protected Jess so fiercely, and no wonder he’d been so appalled by getting into a fight. An abusive father, an unfaithful wife, a tour in Afghanistan where who knows what horrors he’d witnessed, and none of that broke him. The fact that he still possessed a kindness, a gentleness, spoke of his nature, and now she understood why his eyes sometimes held the look of an old soul.

  She’d started falling down a slippery slope with Colt. She couldn’t help admire him, but she couldn’t think about what it would be like to have a man of such strength, such courage in her life. She couldn’t imagine him as a soft place to fall when life left her battered and bruised, because if she did, it would be so easy to fall in love with Colt.

  And that she refused to do.

  Chapter Ten

  After cleaning the kitchen everyone congregated in the living room where the teenagers had started playing video games with Colt and Reed watching.

  “I hate to be the one to end the party, but I had an early-morning shoot today, and it’s catching up with me.”

  Ryan and Jess paused their game and started complaining.

  “Do we have to leave? It’s Friday night...”

  “It’s only ten o’clock.”

  “To avoid an inevitable heated discussion or pulling rank, I’ll take Stacy home,” Colt said.